Holy Mother of God

Christians believe that God is the creator of all, and that He has no beginning or end. So, in that sense, calling Mary the Mother of God is confusing. We can understand this salutation better by looking the Greek word for Mother of God, Theotokos. Literally speaking Theotokos means "God-bearer". So, Mother of God is not intended to be understood as referring to Mary as the Mother of God from eternity, but she is the Mother of God Incarnate. Mary carried Jesus in her womb and attributed towards His genetic makeup. That makes Mary, without any doubt, the mother of Jesus. Since Jesus is God Himself, calling Mary as the Mother of God should also make sense. Unfortunately though, many of the Protestant Christian denominations refuse to accept Mary as the Mother of God. And this has nothing to do with Mary, but everything has to do with the nature of Jesus.


From the early days of the Church, many fundamental christians asserted that Mary did not carry God in her womb, but only carried the human nature of God. This opposing view took center stage in the Church during 5th century when Nestorius, the Archbishop of Constantinople, advocated that Mary should be called Christotokos (Birth-giver of Christ). In doing so, Nestorius restricted Mary's role to the mother of Christ's humanity and not His divinity. His opponents led by Cyril of Alexandria viewed the teachings of Nestorius as dividing Jesus into two distinct persons - namely, the human person who was the son of Mary, and the divine person Who was not Mary's son. They further reasoned that any teaching against the perfect union of divine and human natures in Christ would also raise questions about the fullness of the Incarnation and the Salvation of humanity. The Third Ecumenical Council held at Ephesus in 431 AD accepted Cyril's reasoning and affirmed the title Theotokos for Mary. The council decreed: "If anyone does not confess that God is truly Emmanuel, and that on this account the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God (for according to the flesh she gave birth to the Word of God become flesh by birth), let him be anathema."

Incarnation is a great mystery in itself; trying to put it in human terms always create confusion and error. But, Incarnation is also the greatest blessing the humanity has ever received. Therefore, it is important that we must have a definite understanding of it. And the best way to ponder this great mystery is through Mother Mary and her divine motherhood. The Churches of Syriac Tradition understood this from early on, and The Anaphora of Mari and Addai (The Anaphora of the Syro-Malabar Church) used the term Theotokos in their Liturgy from the 3rd century onwards. When we call Mary, the Mother of God, we are praising God along with Elizabeth who exclaimed, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:42,43)